stackyallred
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 15, 2008
- Messages
- 757
HELLO AND WELCOME!
Welcome to a place where we all live vicariously through one another's accounts of happy times in the happiest of locations.
Welcome to a place where we often see pictures of the same things over and over and it doesn't get old.
Welcome to a place where others don't judge you for enjoying the smell of Target because the freshly popped popcorn reminds you of Main Street or because you listen to music from the Disney parks year round or because on any given day you can and will quote the exact amount of days are left until YOU. GO. BACK.
And more specifically...
Welcome to a place where Mom/MeMee injures her leg less than 48 hours before the trip, leaving her unable to walk/under doctor's orders to not go to WDW
, meaning she can't enjoy the trip she so looked forward to for over a year with her grandson, meaning she also can't bring him back home so her daughter (that's me!) and son-in-law can't enjoy the last week of the trip celebrating their ten year anniversary... alone. Welcome! Welcome! Welcome! To the Red family September 2013 trip report! (Better late than never, right?
)
I have read a lot of trip reports and I have come to notice there are a few different categories that us reporters fall into. I will warn you right now... I fall into the gives you every detail category! That is how I roll- details are kinda my thing so I hope at least for now, they are your thing, too! Also, we aren't really the "Red family" (just in case we become so famous that people start looking us up online
), but the word red is in our last name so naturally, the red font was the way to go! This will probably be a whole lot more interesting if we get on to some introductions and photos of our lovely cast (with a surprise cast member to come... dun dun dun).
Since you have stuck with me this far, I suppose I will go ahead and introduce myself first! My name is Stacey and I was 33 at the time of said trip. I am actually still 33 but not for long! These 30's are just flying by!
Me, super excited to have discovered Babycakes, at DTD in 2012. Safe for me treats!
I am a stay at home mom to my little guy 2/3 of the week and I also work part time as a portrait consultant for my dear friend's photography business. I LOVE my job and how it allows me to work (*cough, cough* aka, pay for our Disney trips) and still have the flexibility to spend a lot of my week with my son. In early 2012 after years of health issues, I was diagnosed with 40+ food allergies and intolerances. If I had a dime for every time I get asked, Well then, what DO you eat? We would be at WDW far more often! The great thing is that DH and I have been enjoying WDW annually since our 2003 honeymoon so what a relief it is to know that even though I pretty much can't eat anywhere but in my own kitchen 353 days a year, there are 12 days a year where chefs make me delicious allergy free food in my very favorite vacation spot!
Next up is my DH, Philip who was also 33... and still is... but not for long... just like me. We enjoy growing older together literally and figuratively, I guess!
Philip and E showing Minnie some love at Chef Mickey's in 2012.
Philip is loud, fun, kind, happy (unless he is super hungry ha ha), graciously accommodating with my food issues, and ENERGETIC. We enjoy Disney so much together and I thoroughly appreciate how we equally are obsessed with WDW. He loves to keep up on all the news and newest happenings at WDW and report it to me. I love to research (mostly about the best places for me to safely eat), plan out our schedule, and make ADRs. He loves to get there and immediately explore the resort. I love to get there and unpack and organize. We have our Disney roles and they compliment each other well! I always feel so bad for couples who don't agree that WDW is the bestest, most magicalest (yep, it is a word as of... now) place to visit. I try not to take for granted that he is as Disney crazy as me!
Moving along, we find ourselves at the littlest (but perhaps biggest in personality) member of our cast. DS, or as we like to call him, E was just 6 weeks shy of his 4th birthday at the time of this trip.
About to take his first ever roller coaster ride on the Barnstormer in 2012.
We may live 19 hours from Orlando, but before turning 4, E had racked up 20 days/4 trips to WDW. Our not so secret mission to brainwash him into WDW obsession has been a wild success! By age two E had all the words to the welcome medley for Magic Kingdom's opening show memorized, by age three he was daily counting up the inches he needed to grow to be able to ride Soarin' (we did some serious vegetable eating that year because as everyone knows, veggies are the best way to grow into the height requirements) and by age four he was (and still is!) daily watching rides and shows of every ride and attraction at every Disney park in the world on YouTube. What can we say? HE IS ONE OF US. Like his mommy, E has some food allergies and can be a bit particular about things. Like his daddy, E is loud and energetic. Like both of us, he looks forward to our next trip EVERY DAY. I often wake in the morning to him standing next to me and asking how long until we go again to which I say, I guess you will have to just wait and see all while full-knowing the exact amount of days left between now and the glorious THEN. We prefer to surprise E the morning we head to WDW for both the element of surprise and more importantly, for our sanity. After his second trip and the never ending Mommy, is it time yet?' routine, we decided surprises are more our style!
My mom, or MeMee as she is known to E is the 4th member of this cast. My mom is a daily part of my life thanks to texting, phone calls, face time and facebook (Ah, social media!) even though she lived approximately 20 hours away (her and my dad have since retired to Florida, woohoo!).
Mom/MeMee with E and I at POP in 2012.
Mom and dad took me and my siblings to WDW for like a day or two twice growing up. I barely remember the first trip but I do remember heat and that they didn't like it. Their second trip was when I performed on the Cinderella Castle Stage as part of a show choir group in high school one July (Remember the pepto bismol pink castle overlay??? Yep, during my once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to sing on the castle stage, that was my back drop!). Again, they hated it and basically drove two days to watch the performance and then GET OUT OF THE CROWDED, HOT park. I am so glad that their bad experience didn't dampen my budding love for WDW. Once I got married and DH and I began going to to WDW annually, I quickly learned that they hated it because they didn't know how to plan, I can't blame them that the disboards didn't exist, though! So when I asked my mom if she would like to join us for a trip back in 2012 (my dad couldn't due to work), I wasn't sure she would want to. But, I was forgetting one major factor we had in our favor... E. She will do just about anything for her grandson and said grandson wanted her to go. To make a long story short (this is a lie, I don't know how to do that... remember, I warned you... DETAILS), mom went and had a great time! She too, has dietary issues so she loved getting to eat safely and though I had NEVER seen her get on a ride in her life, that scared-of-heights MeMee took a spin on Dumbo and a flight on Soarin' among many other things. We had a great time!!! Mom is all about just going with whatever DH and I plan because she insists she is there for one thing- to spend time with E!
One last photo because well, I like it! It is our tradition to all wear Disney shirts and Mickey ears and snap a photo right before we head to the airport so here is 2013's cast in the 2012 production of our vacation!
So that is our brief (HAHA) introduction to our cast though there is a twist to come and a mystery cast member yet to be revealed. We will get to that later because we are now ready to actually start seeing how this trip came to life!
let's begin, shall we?
My in-laws (MIL, FIL and SIL) traveled with us to WDW in 2010 and 2011 and have watched E for a few days after the trip EVERY time so that Philip and I could celebrate our anniversary. We are very blessed to have parents who love to help us with E and join in or support our love of WDW! Below is a picture of past trips with my in-laws.*
Yes, again, my mom is awesome. This is where the A TR of sacrificial joy part of the title comes from. She insisted that absolute worse thing at this point for her was feeling like our trip wasn't going to happen as planned and that she would feel so much better staying behind if she knew we could move forward as we had once hoped. Again, I know my mom and when she has made up her mind about something, she means business. I told her that I didn't even know if it was possible to change names on the reservation (for both her WDW reservations and for her SW flight) at this point but that even if we could work it out, we would personally pay her back for her park tickets and plane tickets (we had paid for her hotel room and had free dining). She said not to worry about it but to try and please not feel bad and get the ball rolling. 
I am honestly not a big crier on a normal basis... I just felt like such a mean daughter and I know Philip felt bad, too. But I knew my mom meant what she had said and we were probably far more likely to save money by going and paying any change fees than if we just canceled (our 7 night Kidani stay was rented points so that would've been $1000 we would never see again, regardless if we could change everything else).
) but I will just sum up the next 24 hours for you quickly:
So we knew if we wanted to really get everything done that we needed to before he woke (shower, dress, etc), we better be in super sleuth mode (aw, I miss My Friends, Tigger and Pooh!)! I think I jumped in the shower at about 3:35 and Philip had showered the night before so he slowly started getting the last minute stuff together you cant pack until you are about to head out the door. Mom had given us strict instructions to wake her before we made the big reveal to E which we had planned to do around 5:00 so we could leave for the airport around 5:30 for our 7:25 AM flight (airport is 45 minutes away). And in case you are wondering why in the world I needed two hours to get ready, its because, well... FOOD. I have to pretty much make 90% of what I eat from scratch and I have to take food with me everywhere I go due to all my allergies. I had to make myself a decent breakfast because I wouldn't be eating again (except for a few snacks I packed) until we were settled at WDW. Plus, I had a cooler to pack, too. And I wanted to give plenty of time to see E take in the surprise. And... I'm sorta slow due to my constant organizing and rechecking lists!
In case you can't tell, the shirt says, "I am going to the Walt Disney World Resort!" Thank you Disney Outlet and the $6 price tag!
I think I have talked Philip into making a compilation video of the trip so hopefully I can share that in the near future. Anyway, he was so excited and began asking lots of questions in his normal mile-a-minute dialogue. We told him to get changed but first we needed another picture.
We calmed him down while I took over clean-the-royal-shirt duty and he did some more laps and dancing to his own made up songs about what was to come. Then it hit him. MeMee was still in her pajamas. MeMee couldn't walk good. MeMee had been telling him for months that she was going to go to Disney with us. He asked her if she was going and she explained no with no tears and lots of encouragement that it was ok because Aunt Emily was going in her place! He was happy with that answer and in a typical 4-year-old boy manner, the subject was closed due to his overall excitement. He put on his once again clean shirt and I told him that MeMee and Poppy (my dad) had been the ones to actually buy his park ticket as a present to him so it was because of them that he was getting to go. That resulted in this moment: 
